The Museum of Moab recently received a gift from local ceramic artist Amy Mealey, who produced 140 ceramic pendants for the dinosaur lesson for first-graders. Mealey utilizes the Raku process to produce a rainbow of colors that makes each piece unique.

Mealey designed the Utah Raptor’s raised footprint to help remind the kids that Utah has its own dinosaur. Kids explored the museum’s Mesozoic Era dinosaur exhibit with Travis Schenck, museum director, learning about the Apatosaurus, the Ankylosaurus and the Utah Raptor. The group assembled their story necklaces, using wooden beads to represent the plant-eating dinosaurs and the ceramic pendant for the meat-eating Utah Raptor.

Andrea Stoughton, the museum’s director of education, said that one day a first-grader wearing his necklace brought his mother to the museum.

“My son loves the dinosaur necklace and wanted to show me the museum,” the mother said.

“I feel like we’ve come full circle when this happens; that’s exactly what we want – families coming to the museum,” said Stoughton, who developed the dinosaur education program using core curriculum standards from grades kindergarten through sixth.

For more information about the program contact Stoughton at 435-259-7985 or email education@moabmuseum.org.

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